


The Last One

by FreshBrains



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Community: tfa_kink, Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Married Couple, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 14:12:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5747446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreshBrains/pseuds/FreshBrains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I think,” Finn says, brow wrinkling as he stares down at the child, like he’s trying to make sense of her, “that she was a baby who wasn’t supposed to be.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last One

**Author's Note:**

> For the DW tfa_kink prompt: [I really just want them to save a shipment full of babies from the First Order before they can get turned into Stormtroopers and they sort of accidentally end up keeping the kid that no one else wants.](http://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/1841.html?thread=1665073#cmt1665073)

Poe finds Finn sitting on the corrugated steel ramp of the dropship.

Night is falling fast and the cargo bay is practically empty; runs ended hours ago and the entire base is abuzz with the surprise “cargo” shot into space from the Finalizer that morning. Of course, the damn ship couldn’t have stuck around long enough for a calculated attack, but they still managed to leave behind a different kind of destruction.

“Finn,” Poe says quietly, trying not to sneak up on his husband. “Babe. What are you doing out here by yourself? It’s getting cold. You forgot your jacket.” Then he hears it—a plaintive moan, high and thin and warbled, coming from the bundle of dark wool in Finn’s arms. He stops, feet away, and stares.

“She was too small,” Finn says. His voice is stern and even—the closest he ever gets to anger, especially with Poe. “Deaf, too. Both ears.” He looks away from the baby and up at Poe. “She was in the medical cabinet.”

Poe kneels down next to Finn on the ground so he can look at the baby. As an only child, he’s not entirely at ease with babies, but he’s also a trained soldier, and he’s also never seen that look on Finn’s face before—not in the months they spent side by side fighting and getting to know each other or in their marriage bed for the past year and a half. “Someone hid her away.”

“PA-1922,” Finn says. “She was the one in charge of the younglings.” Her body had been found in the dropship after they pulled it in, riddled with blaster burns.

Poe rests his hand on Finn’s arm—a simple touch, demanding nothing. “She saved them all. She’s a hero.” _Like you_ , he wants to say, but sometimes Finn doesn’t like that. He’s still not used to praise.

“But she knew this one was special,” Finn says. “Look.”

Poe peers at the child’s face over the edge of the blanket. Her face is round and her cheeks are soft, her hair is jet black and already curling, and she’s got big brown eyes that are open curiously to the strange new world around her. Her chubby fist comes out, waving at Poe, and Poe smiles, touching her delicate fingers with his pinkie.

But there’s definitely something different about this child from the other two dozen children rescued from the dropship. The others reminded Poe of Finn—curious but aloof, controlled, naïve, easily startled but easily subdued. They were raised from the day they were born for one reason and one reason only—to be stormtroopers. But this baby, this tiny girl, was obviously loved by someone.

“I think,” Finn says, brow wrinkling as he stares down at the child, like he’s trying to make sense of her, “that she was a baby who wasn’t supposed to be.”

“What do you mean?” Poe moves to sit next to Finn, needing to be closer to him. He cups his hand around the baby’s head, giving her extra support. She’s so _small_ , so unfit for a world like theirs. He can’t imagine her ever becoming anything less than a whole, wonderful person.

“I think she was born to the stormtroopers,” Finn says. “That’s why they hid her.” He tucks back a corner of the blanket, revealing the smooth skin of the little girl’s neck. “Look. When the younglings are taken in for conditioning, they get a chip planted behind their ear. This one doesn’t have one. Besides,” he says, voice going dark, “if they found out she was deaf, they’d…”

Poe rests his chin on Finn’s shoulder. “She’s here now. She’s safe.” The baby follows their movements with her big eyes—she may not be able to hear them, but she knows she’s warm and safe in someone’s arms. “She’s beautiful, Finn.”

“Yeah,” Finn says. He looks up at Poe for the first time in a long time, meeting his husband’s eyes. Then he smiles—warm, genuine, and everything that makes Poe fall in love with him a little more every day. “She really is.”


End file.
